St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-01-27
A. p. GrinneII,s Address.

! In the afternoon j. X. EMERSON of
PcacIam presided and A. P. Grinnell.
dean of the medical department. of
Burlington University spoke on "Milk
and it's uses in health and disease"
The address was one of exceeding in
terest and calculated to be of great
practical benefit, not only to farmers
and dairymen but to the public in gen.
eral. Here is brief synopsis of it:
Subject: Milk as a diatectic, or it's
use in health and disease. After dis
cussing digestion he urged the great
Importance of proper food well masti-
Gated. The salivary glands of the in
FAINT are not developed until about the
age of teething; therefore foods that
need the saliva to aid digestion, prop
er foods for adults, are emphatically
improper foods for infants. Among
improper foods ofteHest fed infants are
those containing starch and common
cane sugar. One third of all infants
born die before reaching five years of
This terrible death rate is charged to
Gods providence, when it is oftener
due to the ignorance of parents in feed
ing. Corn starch and various manu-
featured foods containing starch and
milk sweetened with cane sugar are
foreign substances in the infants stOm-
ach that are not digested, that act
as irritants and are u fruitful source
Of IiOaacac inoidanf IN childhood
OF all foods mothers milk comes
first. Next is cows milk, practically
the same as mothers milk. The Gus
tom of diluting cows milk when fed to
infants was denounced. A very slight
dilution is sometimes necessary but
the common practice deluges the child's
stomach with water and binders diges-
ton. In sweetening infants food
sugrr of milk should always be used,
cane sugar, never.
The speaker then endeavOred to cor
rect the impression prevailing among
farmers that when butter is made, all
the good is extracted from the milk.
Both skim milk and butter milk con-
tain the most valuable parts of the
milk, little but fats having been trans
ferred to the butter. What is left may
with wise handling, be made to yield
farmers larger revenue than butter
itself. The best of cheese can be made
from skim milk, which is now fed to
the pigs. Farmers should learn to
make the expensive foreign cheeses
and compete with Europe. All the
conditions prevail here to make such
an experiment successful. The whey,
now throw away as worthless, contains
that most valuable constituent, sugar
of milk, now imported at large eX-
pense. There is but one factory in
this country where it is made. There
is no reason why it should not be made
in this country. Condensed milk is
another industry that was urged as a
profitable business for farmers. Re-
turning to the byprOducts of milk the
value of skim milk and butter milk us
nutritious and valuable foods was urg
ed, and the recently enacted New York
law, stopping the sale of skim milk in
that city, vigorously denounced. From
this it was but step to the OleOmar
garine laws. Butter was little else
than Oleomargarine. Oleomargarine
furnished necessary food for the poor
man at half the price of butter and
chemically equally good. The laws
against its manufacture were sharply
denounced as legislation against the
poor. Mothers might as we'll demand
Legislation against the production of
substitutes for mothers milk-get up
a corner on mothers milk as for farm
ers to seek legislation against the man
ufacture of OleOmargarine.
The lecture as whole was not only
full of practical and useful matter but
was we'll delivered and commanded the
close and thoughtful attention of
large audience.
At the close of the address Mr.. Tink-
ham put in word against Ofeomarga
rine. He did not doubt it was perfect
ly healthy but one might as we'll try to
make him believe that the counterfeit
er would put just rs cents worth Ofpure
silver in every dollar he made, as that
the maker of OleOmargarine would use
pure fats, etc. He then told of the fill
thy refuse used in it's manufacture and
of neutral grease put up in Vermont
butter tubs and shipped to creameries.
If people were going to use OleOmarga-
rine he wanted them to use it as such
and not as good butter.
After this the makers of the prize
butter were called up and catechized
and then A. w. Cheever, the judge of
the butter exhibit, gave a sketch of the
methods adopted by him in making the
examination.